Profiles

Search by Deans, Faculty Members, Alumni or by Year to learn more about individuals who have made significant contributions to British Columbia’s legal history as well as those who practiced in the province but were educated elsewhere.


Deans Faculty Members Alumni Year

Displaying 201 - 220 of 606

How does one join the Scottish Football Association as its first full-time Compliance Officer? As Vincent Lunny puts it, "Pure luck! Apart from getting paid to watch football, [the best part of my job is] working with the crowd here at Hampden, Scotland's national stadium . . . [My colleagues] have quickly become friends as well as colleagues and we play football every week. I've lost twenty pounds since Christmas."

Whether or not you have an interest in tax law, one thing is for certain, after talking to Kim Brooks you’ll want to sign up for a tax law class. Brooks is passionate about the subject, so much so that she decided to leave the tax law practice and teach and inspire others to pursue the profession ...

On December 29, 2017 Francesca Marzari was sworn in as a justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia before a small gathering of family members, old and new colleagues and courthouse staff she had met during her term as a law clerk.

“I think probably what I am most proud of is charting my own path and putting together each of my experiences to create what for me is a job that is completely in alignment with my core values. I am somebody that truly loves what I do and I am excited to come to work every day …” – Jennifer McNaught, Legal Personnel & Professional Development Director, Class of 1997.

Keith Chatwine graduated from law school at UBC with the LLB class of 1997. He also received both a Bachelor of Science in 1993 and an MBA in 1997 from UBC. He currently works as a Partner in the Capital Markets and Mergers & Acquisitions Groups at the Calgary office of Stikeman Elliott LLP (“Stikeman Elliott”). Chatwine’s legal practice is diverse and deals with a variety of aspects of corporate law.

Matthew Nathanson earned his LLB from UBC in 1997 and is now a practicing criminal defence lawyer in Vancouver, as well as an active volunteer and mentor for students at Allard Law.

Matthew knew he wanted to become a lawyer at a very early age. His father is a lawyer, so Matthew’s interest in the law was sparked by early family conversations around the dinner table about the law.

“I’ve been wanting to be a lawyer since I was a kid. Nobody in my family or relatives were shocked whatsoever when I became a lawyer…People want to be cops, firemen, others asked me ‘What do you wanna be?’ ‘I wanna be a lawyer.’ I always did. – TJ Dhillon, Coca-Cola delivery trucker, real estate lawyer, car enthusiast, immigrant, father, Class of 1997.

Evelyn Ackah is the founder and managing lawyer at Ackah Business Immigration Law, which currently has offices in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto. People and relationships are at the heart of Evelyn’s work, which is why she’s so passionate about immigration law. Learn more about Evelyn, her work and what inspires her.

You graduated from law school in 1997. Looking back now, what would you say was the highlight of your time here?

Euan was born in Bromborough, U.K., which is why he always sounded so smart. Not one for style over substance, he backed up his English accent with an undergraduate degree earned from Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge, and a Ph.D. in molecular and developmental biology from the University of London. Trading London for Winnipeg, he held postdoctoral fellowships in cell biology and agricultural biology at the University of Manitoba.

Victoria Shroff is credited as being one of the first and longest serving animal law lawyers in Canada. In addition to running her Vancouver-based law firm Shroff & Associates, Victoria has served as an adjunct professor at the Allard School of Law, teaching the animal law seminar. Victoria is often approached by the media to comment on animal law issues and is the founder of a social literacy and animal law program called 'Paws of Empathy’.

E. Louise Logan, Class of 1996, saw the potential of public policy to ignite positive social change before even attending her first class at UBC’s law school. “The power of the law and the power of public policy to both cause harm and to ameliorate” not only inspired Louise to law attend school, it has also motivated her two-decade career in public policy.

Darwin Hanna is one of the named partners of Aboriginal law firm Callison & Hanna, a firm specializing in Aboriginal law that was founded in 1996 by Hanna and his wife, Cynthia Callison. For Hanna, the journey to starting his own law firm began with his undergraduate studies in criminology. Hanna was attracted to criminology in part because he saw the potential for a fulfilling career, and enrolled in a joint-degree criminology program with Douglas College and Simon Fraser University (SFU) upon graduating from high school in Maple Ridge.

Cynthia Callison is a member of the Crow Clan in the Tahltan Nation whose traditional territory is the Stikine River Watershed in northwestern British Columbia. Callison travels often with her family to Tahltan territory, an approximately 22-hour drive from Vancouver. “In my community, we are able to continue the practice of food fishing, hunting, and gathering. My father has ensured that we can survive on the land."

"Issues of poverty and social class, both domestically and globally, have always been especially close to my mind, perhaps because of my upbringing," explained Professor Okafor, whose father was also a lawyer and a labour activist. "He always rallied to such causes and spoke to us about them. And my mother, through her work as a secondary school teacher and community worker, also propagated similar ideas and imbued them in us."

Nikos Harris is an experienced appellate counsel and award-winning Lecturer at the Allard School of Law. He describes his recent experience as co-counsel, with Eric Gottardi, for the Canadian Bar Association which intervened in the Supreme Court of Canada case of R. v. Nur. This decision addresses the use of mandatory minimum sentences for firearms offences in Canada.

 

How would you summarize the R. v. Nur decision?

Siobhan Sams is a graduate of the LLB class of 1995 and currently practices as an Associate at Harper Grey LLP (“Harper Grey”) in Vancouver. Her legal career has involved a fascinating array of concentrations and has taken her around the globe. Sams currently works in the Commercial Litigation Group at Harper Grey with a focus on product liability, particularly in the context of aviation.

Karen Lam, Class of 1995, began her career as an entertainment lawyer, but in 2000 turned her attention to working full-time as a writer, producer and director in the film and television industry, with a particular talent for horror films. She has produced four feature films, eight short films and three television series, and has had her work recognized with numerous awards and honours.

Photo of Tania Tomaszewska by Jon Adrian.

Ardith Wal'petko We'dalx Walkem earned an LLB in 1995 and an LLM in 2005, both from UBC. She has built her legal career in areas of Indigenous law including land and resource use and children's rights, as well as access to justice. In 2020, she was appointed as a judge to the BC Supreme Court. She is the first Indigenous woman in BC to hold this position.

I am a member of the Haida Nation and a member of the Raven Clan. In our oral traditions, Raven was Originally white. There are days and days of stories of Raven as he ... haphazardly brings the world into existence as we know it. Through that process he steals the sun and the moon from their caretakers, flies through the smoke hole in the longhouse and brings light to the world. And when he flew through the smoke hole, he became black.


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